March 2013: The Turning Point for Colorado Students

This year, Great Education Colorado has joined with more than 160 organizations and 9,000 individuals to demand that the legislature make 2013 the Year of the Student by creating a long-term plan to support student success.

So far so good. Here's the rundown for just a couple weeks in March:

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on whether it should affirm a trial court's 2011 decision that Colorado's school funding system is unconstitutional. If the Court affirms, it will order the legislature to do its job: provide a "thorough and uniform system of free public schools."

Senator Mike Johnston introduced SB13-213 — a bill to rewrite Colorado's School Finance Act for the first time in almost 20 years, to go into effect only if Colorado voters pass a ballot initiative to increase funding for schools. You can learn more about the bill here.

The Joint Budget Committee’s process for deciding how much to spend on P-12 and higher education for the 2013-14 school year is in full swing.

Multiple proposals on school funding were filed before last Friday’s deadline with the Colorado Legislative Council, a process governed by the Colorado Constitution. Filing a proposal is first step of a multi-step process to put an issue before voters in the fall. Great Ed is doing everything we can to make sure the voters have the chance to say yes to meaningful new investment in our schools.

That's a lot of moving parts, but the potential for progress toward better education funding is greater today than we've ever seen it before.